1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for selecting a desired ideographic character or at least one word including at least one ideographic character from a plurality of ideographic characters each of which have an ideographic configuration containing hieroglyphic elements, such as Chinese characters.
2. Prior Art
As conventional selection systems of this kind, a character board input system and a keyboard input system are mainly employed for Chinese character selection in word processors which are now widely used for the rationalization of office work. The character board input system has an advantage that any operator can relatively easily use a word processor without requiring much skill, but has a disadvantage that it is necessary for the operator to learn the arrangement of 2000 to 3000 characters on the character board and even if the operator is acquainted with the manipulation of the character board, the input is limited in speed, and this makes speed-up of input operation impossible. The keyboard input system includes a Japanese `Kana`-to-Chinese character conversion system, a Roman letter (phonetically represented `Kana`) to Chinese character conversion system, a two-stroke system and a multi-stage shift system. The former two systems select Chinese characters corresponding to `Kana` instructed by operating the `Kana` or Roman letter keyboard and referring to a built-in dictionary of the word processor in which Chinese characters are mainly defined in the base of their pronounciation in Japanese. These systems possess an advantage of relatively high-speed input but have a disadvantage that homonyms must be selected by some other selection operation. The two-stroke system is also called an associated code input system in which codes are predetermined so that all Chinese characters used are each associated with a pair of `Kana` letters through utilization of a kind of mnemonics, and in which a desired one of the Chinese characters is identified by indicating the corresponding pair of `Kana` letters. With the two-stroke system, however, special training is required while a high-speed input operation is possible, and furthermore the number of selectable characters is limited. The multi-stage shift system is also referred to as a Kanji Telex system or multi-stage stroke system. In the system, 8 to 15 Chinese characters are assigned to each key, while another shift key is used to specify a desired one of the Chinese characters allocated to each key. Accordingly, the selection of one Chinese character calls for operation of both one of the character keys and the shift key. This operation requires special training and the input speed is not so high, and further, the control panel is complex in mechanism.